Beach glass and blue bottles

This afternoon, we were down and the beach and I hit a great spot of sand-in-the-making full of bits of shells, rocks and beach glass! I got a handful of beautiful bits of beach glass, and even a pottery shard that had been burnished by the sands, when I heard the sound every parent fears....their child screaming in pain and fear.

Grant and his mom, sister, and the kids had stayed back to play in the waves while I beachcombed. Owen was rushing along the edges of the water as it moved up and down the shore while the other children were in the water splashing in the waves. Even though Owen wasn't in the water, he had the bad luck of running into a newly-beached blue bottle...also known as a Portuguese Man o' War.



The above picture is one borrowed from Google Images, but it is a good example of what one looks like. They are generally small, maybe the size of a small child's fist, at the inflated sail, but the tentacles trail out behind for a meter or more. The tentacle wrapped around Owen's leg which immediately stung him, and then again on his wrist when he reactively pulled it off. They are very painful, but generally not harmful for an individual sting on the extremities. Grant rushed him back up the hill to douse the stings in vinegar to help neutralize the poison and a hot bath to further denature the venom and stop the stinging. After 20 minutes of treatment he was fine, but saying he never, never, never, never, never, never, or ever wanted to go back into the sea again. Poor guy.

More about blue bottles can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Man_o'_War



You can see where the tentacle wrapped around his leg. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better beach day. (he's currently running around playing tag with his cousins...fully recovered)

--Doni